Mother held for battering 3-month-old daughter to death

The mother of three-month-old baby girl Ahuti Joshi, who died of suspected battering while undergoing treatment in KEM Hospital, was arrested today on the charge of murdering her daughter.

Earlier today, the police had registered a murder case with parents as prime suspects, in connection with the infant's death.

"Ahuti's mother Dharmishtha Joshi confessed to have beaten up her baby girl very badly as she was continously crying. She also claimed that she hit her baby on her ribs and head in a fit of rage and not because she did not want her daughter," Borivali police station senior inspector Bhagwan Chate said.

The police also said that the baby girl's father Kalpesh Joshi is innocent in this case. The accused will be produced in court tomorrow.

The baby girl died on Sunday during treatment after she was admitted by her parents to central Mumbai's civil-run KEM hospital with a skull fracture last week, the police said.

The hospital's paediatric department found that she had multiple skull fractures and also suffered from internal bleeding, the police said.

When her parents failed to give a satisfactory explanation for her injuries, doctors notified the police who took note of the incident.

However, after the girl died of injuries on Sunday, the police had registered it as an accidental death.

Later, preliminary postmortem findings confirmed that the baby girl had injuries on both sides of the skull, which were unlikely to be caused by an accidental fall.